Enable Intel's Quick Sync Video

Question

Level 1

8 points

Enable Intel's Quick Sync Video

Intel has developped a feature on the Intel Core processors to transcode h.264 codec without CPU hog. IMovie, Airplay Mirroring, FaceTIme and QuickTime Player X are using it. For what i had learned, the video is supposed to be in single pass transcode using the Apple Devices preset but the CPU ramps up on 70 %. From what I had watched to use this Intel's Quick Sync Video feature the computer has to run on the Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later but the application itself forces to use the High Performance Graphics Card in which I learned CUDA acceleration loses against the Quick Sync.

How to enable that feature? This is why I prefer the iMacs and portable Apple computers because the Mac Pro doesn't have that feature on their Xeon processors.

Compressor, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3), Possible to apply this on Fcp?

Posted on Jun 2, 2014 5:35 PM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jun 3, 2014 9:42 AM in response to ludo860

It's automatically enabled with certain encoding settings.

Here are a few articles about the circumstances under which hardware acceleration is used.

http://www.larryjordan.biz/compressor-4-1-hardware-acceleration/

http://www.larryjordan.biz/mac-pro-video-compression/

http://www.larryjordan.biz/compressor-4-1-a-tip-to-increase-speed/

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Answer 2

BenB

Level 6

13,184 points

Jun 9, 2014 9:27 AM in response to Russ H

If you run a Mac with the proper Intel CPU installed, simply use single pass for H.264, it will kick in.

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Answer 3

ludo860 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2014 2:16 PM in response to BenB

I have the 3615qm (a mobile CPU in MacBook Pro 15inch mid 2012) on the Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge. Is it normal when the CPU ranks up around 70% while using h.264 and single pass encoding? I thought the Intel Quick Sync Video was suppose to be less ressource intensive and use the Intel HD Graphics 4000 for encoding. When Compressor loads up, it uses the Nvidia GeForce GT 650m high performance GPU. Maybe I am wrong and the graphics card doesn't matter but I need some clarification of this feature on Intel.

Thanks for the feedback.

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Answer 4

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jun 9, 2014 2:49 PM in response to ludo860

As I understand it, the GPU is used by the version of Compressor that's embedded in FCP X when exporting but not by the stand-alone Compressor 4,1.

Russ

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Answer 5

ludo860 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2014 3:53 PM in response to Russ H

I used the Send to compressor function on the top of the screen. Should I send a bug report or a feedback?

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Answer 6

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jun 9, 2014 3:55 PM in response to ludo860

Not sure I understand what you'd be reporting as a bug.

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Answer 7

ludo860 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2014 4:03 PM in response to Russ H

Can't use hardware acceleration on single pass encoding when using the h.264 codec. I think I will export the footage in a uncompressed codec and use Handbrake instead...

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Answer 8

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jun 9, 2014 7:18 PM in response to ludo860

Of course I don't know what your volume and deadlines are like…but just to throw out one alternative: export Pro Res. Set up Compressor with multiple instances, See whether that makes enough of a difference to satisfy your requirements.

Russ

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Answer 9

Sep 17, 2014 8:14 PM in response to ludo860

What I do not understand, after having read this thread, is why it would be limited to single pass in the first place. Why use such an acceleration for lower quality video, when one would want to use it for high quality video that comes from multi pass? (No Leeloo Dallas here.) After having fiddled with settings for well over a year, I prefer the look of multi pass, and really am boggled as to why a better quality video would be subject to turning off hardware acceleration. That's the equivalent of punishing you for using a better quality a la "We want people to use lower quality video, so we're excluding helpful technologies from high quality renders." Why? I'll be the first to say that I do not understand this thoroughly, but that I have always, no matter the settings tweaks, gotten better video out of multi pass than single pass. Why not enable the acceleration per each pass? It just does not add up for me.

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Answer 10

em0

Level 2

280 points

Jan 1, 2015 5:40 PM in response to K.Andrews

K.Andrews wrote:

What I do not understand, after having read this thread, is why it would be limited to single pass in the first place. Why use such an acceleration for lower quality video, when one would want to use it for high quality video that comes from multi pass?

That's probably just because of how QuickSync handles the datastream more than anything else but am posting in an admittedly old thread to point out something that may not be obvious to others.

Doing a two-pass encode never comes into my workflow anymore ever since x264. When I would export mp4/avi containers for XviD MPEG4 it was always better, but these days I've had some instances where I can't tell the difference or multi-pass is worse (but I don't discount the possibility of user error) so the dramatically increased extra time to output has never added any value to the process anymore.

I use variable framerate and Constant Quality and let x264 tear through it all in one pass and it's always generated consistently great results. Using Average Bitrate Encoding and 2-pass takes so much longer and never generates anything I prefer especially when I consider the cost in time.

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